Thank you for providing these clear and biblical guidelines with your counterbalancing notes from David Powlinson’s book. They are really very helpful. However, I am distressed that your critique of this overview of the four models of modern Spiritual Warfare ended so soon. Do you plan to continue your assessment of this work by looking at the even more wildly aberrant method of Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare propagated by Wagner? This is desperately needed, as there is little understanding in the mainstream church of the anti-gospel roots of these kinds of Warfare Prayer techniques that he helped to popularize.

And sadly, because the heretical movement Wagner leads — the New Apostolic Reformation– has been able to masquerade as Evangelical for so long, and because their propaganda arm — the series of Transformation videos Wagner produced with George Otis, Jr. — are so effective at spinning the truth, many of their teachings and technologies have seeped into the orthodox church. The popular idea of prayer walking, for example, abandons one-on-one evangelism for marching about a neighborhood, claiming territories for the Kingdom, binding spirits that hold people and cities captive, and changing the ‘spiritual atmosphere.’ The focus is not on the person and work of Jesus Christ, but on Satan and his minions. Wagner also teaches that it is people groups who are first saved, and then individual souls. Sadly, the gospel is often not preached to those individuals, in lieu of this unbiblical focus.

Wagner’s technology of Spiritual Mapping has had a particularly malign influence in the world of missions. It again focuses attention away from the Gospel and moves it towards the heroic efforts of Spiritual Warriors who battle demonic forces, and their influence over societies. It becomes very dangerous when coupled with the authority Wagner cedes to his coalition of Super Apostles, who issue decrees based on very questionable prophecies and words of knowledge.

We see the toxic effect of these Spiritual Warfare technologies, which can demonize whole populations, in the blighted country of Guatemala through the influence of C. Peter Wagner’s co-author, the Super Apostle and mega-church pastor Harold Caballeros. This flawed theology, combined with the Dominionist culture of the New Apostolic Reformation that borrows heavily from Old Testament types, created a perfect scenario for the scorched earth policies of President Rios-Montt — a terrifying eighteen months in which the native Mayan peoples were systematically eliminated by death squads because their heritage was considered satanic.

Rios-Montt presided over a short reign of terror in which an estimated 70,000 unarmed civilians were killed or disappeared, and he is now finally on trial there for crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, one of his former generals, fellow School of the Americas alumnus Otto Perez Molina, is now president. And Molina installed International Coalition of Apostles (ICA) member, Harold Cabelleros as Foreign Minister, who is featured prominently in those Transformations videos, mentioned above. He is a long-time colleague of Peter Wagner, he ran for president of Guatemala himself, and is founder of El Shaddai, a 9000 member church in Guatemala City.

Harold Caballeros has had connections to many of the controversial figures in Guatemala’s political struggles — such as church member Edward Perisen, former head of the PNC, the national police force. According to the New York Times, several officers in the PNC were dismissed in 2007 after a series of extra judicial killings. As reported in the Times on 3/05/07, one PNC official said, “The officers in these squads belong to evangelical churches, and see the extrajudicial killings of gang members, known here as `social cleansing,’ as holy work. But they also have begun to commit crimes for their own profit.” And as Perisen explained on a weekly television show produced to provide police officers with the “spiritual resources they needed to combat the forces of evil” before he fled the country:

The prophet and Apostle of Christ, Brother Harold Cabelleros and his wife, the prophetess, of whom I am a humble servant, instrument and means for taking them to Power in Guatemala and having a Government of God, were charged with the moral and spiritual motivation…

Harold Caballeros (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The death squads that still function within the PNC and the Ministry of Government, are a holy enterprise that is organized by agents and personnel from Evangelical churches that know our obligations to society…I must recognize that the story published in the New York Times on March 5 of this year is true; the “social cleansing” that, together with Carlos Vielman as Minister of Government we carried out in the institution, had to be done and must continue, as I understand has been ordered to the new authorities…it is not a justification; it is, rather, a recognition that when one is humble and is an instrument of DIVINE JUSTICE…

In a 2007 interview with Charisma magazine, C. Peter Wagner said during Caballeros’ unsuccessful bid for the Presidency in Guatemala:

“Christians in the global South are way ahead of us in this area,” Wagner said. “The values of the kingdom of God should penetrate every level of society, and they understand that. … [Caballeros is] doing it right, going right to the top and taking dominion.”

Later, with Rios-Montt on trial for human rights violations, Wagner did some revisionist history, as is his wont, and blamed the president’s generals for the problems. But remember, that same general — Molina! — is now in power and appointed as his foreign minister Wagner’s fellow apostle. The pastor whose church members ran death squads for God. A man who wrote a rather interesting chapter in the book Wagner edited, Breaking Strongholds In Your City: How To Use Spiritual Mapping To Make Your Prayers More Strategic, Targeted and Effective . Caballeros writes that he had been reading the biblical verses that describe the binding of the “strong man.” A dream was told him of three rough hands holding transparent ropes joining three specific Guatemalan cities. Then another believer named the three who held the ropes. Investigations revealed those three persons were conducting “evil works of the devil” in those three cities, through money, politics and drug dealing. After Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare, the first was jailed awaiting trial, the second lost his office, and the third’s power was greatly diminished. Caballeros said this of Spiritual mapping in the book he helped Wagner write, “Spiritual mapping is a means toward identifying the enemy. It is our spiritual espionage.”

In his chapter Harold Caballeros also described a case in which one of his El Shaddai Church’s Spiritual Mapping teams was divinely informed that a single individual was responsible for the Satanic forces oppressing a specific geographical area. God then revealed that person’s identity:

“While we were in prayer the Lord spoke and said, “Tomorrow I will give you the man’s first and last name in the newspaper.” He also told us on which page it would occur. It was something absolutely supernatural and exciting to discover right on that page the full name of the person dedicated to these activities.”

One can only guess at the means Caballeros took to deal with this evildoer that the LORD himself identified. He does not say. But Caballeros has publicly suggested that Catholics are not Christians and in his books claimed Guatemala and Central America are cursed due to an ancient Mayan pact with Satan. These kinds of teachings undergirded the hundreds of massacres on Mayan villages that were carried out during the eighteen months of Rios-Montts reign of terror. One Gospel Outreach pastor defended the killings:

“The army doesn’t massacre the Indians. It massacres demons, and the Indians are demon-possessed; they are communists. We hold brother Efraín Ríos Montt like King David of the Old Testament. He is the king of the New Testament. (pg 238)”

Because these Third Wave Hyper-Charismatics operate under an Old Testament typology, and in Exodus 22 God instructs that a witch may not be permitted to live, we can assume that the threat to Guatemala from one of Satan’s local operating agents –remember, God himself revealed this person to Caballeros — was very effectively minimized. As Caballeros wrote here, “when the strong man is vanquished in a given territory, the inhabitants become free to receive the light of the gospel.”

In his writings Peter Wagner has elaborated at length about the Kingdom Now “dominion mandate”and what it means and at a 2008 NAR conference declared,

“Dominion has to do with control. Dominion has to do with rulership. Dominion has to do with authority and subduing and it relates to society… Dominion means being the head and not the tail. Dominion means ruling as kings.”

Guatemala’s history amply demonstrates that this dangerous kind of Kingdom Now Dominionism can also mean demonizing your opponents. And because some in charge of that benighted country seem to have forgotten that our “struggle is not against flesh and blood”, and have forgotten that we are not an Old Testament Theocracy, it can also mean that when a Dominionist king goes out to war he cleanses the land of those demonic forces oppressing him with Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare. Equipped with some hammers and guns, like in What Happened at Dos Erres. All this so the light of the Gospel could shine. I guess.

“… we ought to see clearly that the end DOES justify the means. What else possible could justify the means? If the method I am using accomplishes the goal I am aiming at, it is for that reason a good method. If, on the other hand, my method is not accomplishing the goal, how can I be justified in continuing to use it?” (C. Peter Wagner, “Your Church Can Grow – Seven Vital Signs Of A Healthy Church”, 1976, pg. 137. – emphasis in original)

But we know that Scripture asserts that such a pragmatic approach is not a fitting frame for the Gospel. John MacArthur says of such an approach:

But when pragmatism is used to make judgments about right and wrong, or when it becomes a guiding philosophy of life, theology, and ministry, inevitably it clashes with Scripture. Spiritual and biblical truth is not determined by testing what “works” and what doesn’t. We know from Scripture, for example, that the gospel often does not produce a positive response (1 Cor. 1:22, 23;2:14). On the other hand, satanic lies and deception can be quite effective (Matt. 24:23, 24; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4). Majority reaction is no test of validity (cf Matt. 7:13, 14), and prosperity is no measure of truthfulness (cf Job 12:6). Pragmatism as a guiding philosophy of ministry is inherently flawed. Pragmatism as a test of truth is nothing short of satanic. (Ashamed of the Gospel, xii)

The horrifying legacy of SLSW in Guatemala illustrates truth of these charges. Whatever its innocuous original intent, Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare has morphed into an entity with terrible consequences when it is utilized in the real world of governance by unaccountable officials and super-Apostles.

I wrote the above report, very conflicted about the interesting variety of sources I have had to rely upon for historical verification of the facts of this history of the NAR Apostles working in the government of Guatemala through the teachings of Super Apostle Harold Caballeros, and the members of his megachurch, El Shaddai. I am fully aware of the contentious history of this tormented country, particularly the critiques of Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberto Menchu by the anthropologist David Stoll, as it has been reported by the New York Times. It causes me no end of grief that there are no solid sources of journalism that readers of this blog would be more inclined to trust, which have an Evangelical imprimatur — such as World magazine. The only corroborating account of Rios-Monnts reign of terror under General Molina that has gravitas among Christians is this FOX news account here, http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/01/14/will-otto-perez-molinas-past-affect-guatemalas-future/ But sadly, it offers no account of the genocide’s connection to the Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare that undergirded the ‘iron fist’ of Molina and those death squads. Or even the Christian dominionism that most journalists understand.

Nevertheless, the connections between the Dominionist Apostle and megachurch leader Harold Caballeros and the systematic elimination of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala as it filtered its way through the army of Rios-Montt and the secret police, who were members of El Shaddai cannot be explained away or ignored by responsible Christian people. It was clearly accomplished because of the teaching of Caballeros that the ‘demonic oppresssion’ the country suffered could be blamed on the indigenous peoples’ Mayan heritage. They are dangerous teachings in actual practice, and must be firmly opposed by the mainline churches.

And still, nearly thirty years later, the blood of an estimated 200,000 civilians in Guatemala cries out from the ground. May the Evangelical Church cry out to God with them! Oh, I long for the day of God’s perfect justice.

But let justice roll down like waters,and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Sadly, some do. Some waste this trial. Because a parent of a prodigal feels an excruciating fear mixed with guilt and regret, and we want our anguish gone. Yet this worst kind of pain can become the best kind of joy, if we don’t seek to escape being pressed into the cross. This sorrow is meant to draw us into a holy bond, to a unique and privileged place where we grasp the Father’s heart as He gasped in pain and gathered Himself into a fetal position just the way we do when we pray for our lost sons and daughters when we know the danger they are in and we would do anything, go anywhere, oh, we would die in their place if we could, if we could only save them from the world of hurt they are facing if they continue in the way they are going. The way that we know will ultimately lead to eternal death and unending torment.

I prayed fervently like this for a prodigal once, when they were suicidally depressed and without God, and despairing, without any hope in this world. Oh, it was a terrible place but it was still filled with a special intimacy with the Father, and I am thankful to say that God reached out and grasped my own prodigal’s hand and snatched them like a brand from the fire. I am so thankful this one is eternally safe, but I so miss that intense time of fellowship with the Father when I prayed this way.

This ex-prodigal is no longer languishing in the fire, but I would still invite prayer for them, because sadly they are still a bit of a ” flickering flame He will not snuff out.” Oh, how we wait for Him to “lead justice to victory”, in this child’s life now, as this one still fights some very ugly thoughts, battles demonic strongholds — and the greatest hindrance to their victory is the magical thinking of Charismania that formed their spirituality. They were brought up to think that if they prayed the right Prayer Formula (or had some SuperApostle pray it for them!) every hurt would be instantly healed, and all their terrible suffering would go away. And we taught them these answers to prayers are owed them by the rules — all those Scriptures that guarantee blessings for those who are good and righteous and give it all away, and are utterly abandoned to God.

But it is presumption for us to pray this way and to assume the prerogatives of God — to ‘call out things that are not, as though

they were’. The arrogance of this kind of prayer is rebuked by the Scriptures, “Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?” (Isaiah 45:11) This kind of repetitive and demanding,’naming and claiming’ prayer is praying as the Shamans and the pagans pray, it is not prayer in the name of Jesus, which is prayer in all things consumed and subsumed by the Holy will of God, the only wise God, who sovereignly does as He pleases.

And our answer to the mysteries of the sovereign will of God does not rest in us raising ourselves to the level of God, and arrogating powers of creation and redemption that belong to Him alone. We cannot possibly create faith in prodigals by ‘naming it and claiming it’, or ‘speaking it into existence’. To presumptuously do that is to put faith in our faith — it is not faith in God, and it is idolatry. Thus we blaspheme God, and miss one of the sweetest blessings given to God’s children, that of the fellowship of His suffering, that suffering that Abraham knew most excruciatingly, when he in faith laid his son on the altar. And the agony of Abraham’s hope is described here:

“…as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ( Romans 4:17-18)

It is said of Abraham that he was a ‘friend of God.’ When we look to his example, and wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled in our lives, we lay down in his same choice place — close to God’s own heart. We would miss that hidden blessing if we choose instead to make ourselves ‘little gods’ and take things out of His hands. So don’t waste those prayers for your prodigals. Don’t wave a magic wand. Don’t speak your positive confession, claiming them for the kingdom, and putting yourself in the place of God so you can birth them again with the power of your words — but this time to an eternal life. It is God alone who gives life to the dead! So don’t waste your breath like that. Instead, let your particular pain of bearing a prodigal lead you in prayer to a place of intimate friendship with Him.

One of them, in the trenchant words of Russel Moore, really does “repudiate the Gospel”. According to Webster’s, to repudiate is to “reject as having no authority or binding force.” Spurgeon said, “The very substance of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, Himself—His Person, His work, His glorious offices.”

One, a prosperity preacher named Pat, declares to be dead a spouse who is weakened by illness, a wife who speaks hurtful things and is difficult to be around. He says one can’t be faulted for wanting companionship–if you’re not blessed by the relationship, end it.

Another Robertson, surnamed McQuilken, resigned the presidency of a prestigious Christian college to care for his wife who was diagnosed with Alzheimers. It was startlingly counterculteral, because as one doctor who works with the dying said, “Almost all women stand by their men; very few men stand by their women.” And he stood by her for 25 years, and he observed,

Love is said to evaporate if the relationship is not mutual, if it’s not physical, if the other person doesn’t communicate, or if one party doesn’t carry his or her share of the load. When I hear the litany of essentials for a happy marriage, I count off what my beloved can no longer contribute, and I contemplate how truly mysterious love is.

Which Robertson says the work of Christ has no binding authority on him? Which one adorns the doctrines of Christ? Which Robertson really has really believed in the grace of God which has appeared, bringing salvation, that trains us to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions ” (Titus 2:11) It is not legalism to be faithful to a vow, it is not the law that teaches us to renounce worldliness, it is love and grace!

Which Robertson really exalts Christ here, who really reveals Christ to His people and makes Him great in their thoughts? And who preaches a Prosperity gospel that has more in common with an Asherah pole than a cross? That was Russel Moore’s astute observation of Pat Robertson’s teaching.

Moore writes,

Somewhere out there right now, a man is wiping the drool from an 85 year-old woman who flinches because she think he’s a stranger. No television cameras are around. No politicians are seeking a meeting with them.

But the gospel is there. Jesus is there.

So which Robertson preaches Christ? Who repudiates Him? There are those who will ask, ‘And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

There will be an awful sorting of sheep from goats at the end of time.
It seems that Jesus considers that when we ignore the needs of the weakest, we have rejected His authority– and we have repudiated the Gospel. Some will be on his right and some on the left. Some will depart from him, forever.

“First, the churches, in larger and larger numbers, are adapting themselves to felt needs in the congregations much as a business might adapt its product to a market. ..[to a] consumer, somebody who is going to attempt to hitch up a product to their own felt needs…they want a sense of personal well-being, however momentary and fragmentary that personal sense of well-being is, and our churches are beginning to cater to this.” ( Dr.David Wells)

Our Father Below has asked me to write a summary of our meeting this week , and copy it to him and all the Principals.

In view of the enormous stakes involved in the overall strategy to infiltrate and merge all the various Points of Sale into One Giant Monopoly, we have seen it as imperative to increase communication among the Principal Tempters. Several of us have felt undermined in our efforts, by others who have seemed to forget our overall goal: to mainstream the River Movement. It has been helpful for us to review the overall campaign, and brainstorm together the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats we have each observed.

Shamanazerr reported on our greatest Strength: the successful packaging of Fuller and Company. They are squarely in the mainstream now–The Professor with his “Prayer Walks”, and America’s Pastor at Twaddleback with his “Peace Plan”. We’ve got control in both arenas now: the churches and the Missions Organizations. We MUST keep both distracted from their first order of business: getting out the Nasty News and making more replicas of our Enemy.

So we have penetrated the market at every Point of Sale with identificational repentance, prayer walking, spiritual mapping, and forty days of purposelessness; every important distraction from that simple and dreadful command, “Preach the good news to all the world”. We will divert them with busyness that also is a clever sop for the conscience of those who are ashamed of the gospel. We will push that cute “Ultimate Treasure Hunt”–it combines all this nonsense but adds the lure of adventure to the mix –which is especially important to our targeted youthful demographic. Instead of totting up ‘souls won’, the patients will love to add up all the ‘lives they have influenced.’ We will fill them with pride as they talk of dynamic spiritual warfare that “changes the atmosphere”, and so we easily obscure the truth that the Nasty News is THE power of salvation. Pride is also the pull promotion towards glory clouds, open portals, orbs and all other various shamanistic technologies that are so extremely titillating to these under the sway of the Extreme Prophetic .

Other tools repackaged from the New Age proving equally strong for this target market are Centering prayer, and Sozo. Both are very effective at focusing attention away from the Enemy. With the Contemplative technique, we are able to block our patient’s real communion with the Enemy, and open their minds to our suggestions instead; and most importantly, they are not concerned at all with hallowing That Name, but only with enjoying the self-hypnotism repeating The Dread Name ad-nauseum produces. Do not let them near a serious study of The Enemy’s Prayer, as they must not encounter anything that would point them to the absurdity of using repetitious words to address their so-called Father.

Shamanezerr developed Sozo this same way, cleverly repackaging the “healing of the inner child” model from Jungian psychologies. Sozo’s effectiveness (aside from the draw of simony on the prayer ‘minister’) is that it keeps the patients fixed in searching deep within their souls for past hurts and wounds, seeking self satisfaction. Then, our voices speak sweet nothings as a visualized ‘Jesus’ will comfort them. For what should be dead to them, their past life, what ought to have been dead and buried in their baptisms, is fair game for us. And what fair game it is, very gamey, so scrumptious! Carcasses never buried– didn’t The Enemy say, that there “the Eagles” will gather? So, we gather, and so we devour. This does well,to keep the patients’ gaze upon their navels, not the Nasty Wooden Thing. Oh, their self love is so delicious. Feed it with more hypnotizing mantras and more Sozo.

Our greatest Strength, however is poised to become our greatest weakness. Life cycles of our products are becoming clearer as well– the “plundering of the Egyptians” trope may have reached its peak, as the economic downturn continues, and the ransacked economies of the world are looking for a scapegoat; and so they are starting to hitch up the horses to the chariots in pursuit–note the Atlantic’s cover story, “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?”

So at this point we mustn’t be too confrontational with our coveting appeal. Even the greedy disenfranchised may begin to see their guilt, and begin to think seriously, and perhaps repent! The enormously effective Prosperity Gospel (aka Pyramid Scheme) cannot be risked, it is the linchpin at our biggest Points of Sale. Because of this weakness in our market, we have all agreed to tone down the “seed-faith”, and all the other ‘greed is godly’ pulls for this bunch. Wolves won’t get wool when the sheep can’t work. And the gullible may get angry if pushed too much here, and start to rebel! Remember: for this group, money is their sacredest cow.

We have observed that another tool at the end of its life cycle may be the Fuller Brush Man himself–he is eighty now, isn’t he? How regrettable. He has been so useful. He is so avuncular and scholarly and nonthreatening, and those unfortunate “apostolic decrees” at the the Ludicrous Buffoon’s coronation have been largely forgotten. Every last one of them, all of that debacle must stay forgotten. We believe we have recovered the brand, and we can still position it for those with a lust for power and prestige– our push continues with Dominionism, the Joseph anointing, The Seven Mountains Mandate. Our puppets really believe they are the Head, while we pull on their tails to move them wherever we want them to go. Hah! What a luscious surprise, when these fools discover which end they really are. A very bad end for them indeed!

Your dear Emma Angel here reluctantly brought up the weaknesses we are facing in continuing to position the Ludicrous Buffoon to the downsized, disaffected divorced and dysfunctional psychographic, basically to the disenfranchised. I will not question Our Father Below’s wisdom in removing me from the position of Chief Tempter to the Ludicrous Bufoon, and giving it to dear, dear Dracovox–affectionately known to us here as the ‘Break Wind’ Angel. No, I have complete confidence in in him to be a Pull Through Angel, as he has been in the past. We all remember his management of similar loose cannons at the KFC franchise. Yet the danger here is not to be underestimated. Your sweet Emma Angel has said before, we are becoming grossly overconfident of this crowd! I am forbidding my pupils to tease our patients any longer, and although the benefits of their out-of-control behavior are obvious to us, in that they are oblivious to our machinations when they’re ‘whacked’, the risks of letting them be too ridiculous are too great to our overall campaign. Frankly, they all look demon possessed. Someone will eventually discern this, and begin to do real exorcisms at the Points of Sale again, and we lose our advantage.

Remember, the campaign was named by our Father Below himself: “The Hour is Urgent!” Our greatest strategy has always been fear and anxiety. We make them afraid of the coming of Our Messiah. We will make them afraid that they won’t be able to cope with the End-Times…that their little lights won’t be shining. That their foolish lamps will be empty of oil. Afraid their appetites and habits can’t be altered. Afraid of all those hideous inner desires, that they will erupt and control their lives. So we will play with their fears of missing out of the promised instant sanctification if they don’t stay in the movement, and so we expect Fire Tunnels to be big, big, big!

And don’t forget, keep repeating the old chestnut, “We are Entering a Time of Open Heaven.” So their pathetic Heavens open, and what falls out? All that glitters and distracts–angel feathers and gold dust and gold teeth, fake jewels and fake words, and everything that rusts and molds, rots and fades away. Draw their attention to these tawdry tricks, to any shiny shape that magically redirects attention from the Infernal Wooden Thing, and the Enemy. They are so pathetically gullible.

Ishhopmaner reported on our premier opportunity: securing Generation Next. This is Best Served at the House of Pancakes . Because this market is so sick of their parent’s excesses, he has bundled the Fasted Lifestyle very effectively with the Bridal Paradigm–brilliantly funneling all those raging hormones into the ‘Spirit of Burning’! We’re working the “Love-sickness” trigger–we make sure they’re depressed, discouraged and disillusioned whenever they are away from the hypnotic pull of the Play Rooms. We have inculcated the need for hyper-stimulation into our young patient’s neuro-transmitters from those pre-pubescent gateway drugs of playstations and I-pods. How very ironic! These patients castigate the culture, attacking it as an “abyss of entertainment”, and can’t see they are as dope-sick as any of our junkie patients. It is imperative for them to remain ignorant of our brilliant conditioning process.

And this leads us to our greatest, our only Threat, as it has been from the beginning, as my brother Screwtape so ably pointed out: we must be careful in our attempts to desensitize our Patients to these practices, (that in former days they would have considered occult!), that we do not awaken their reason. We want them fully ignorant of our devices, they must never be allowed to question what they are doing.

So our strategy here to neutralize this Threat will be to make the so-called Watchmen on the wall look ridiculous. Tempt them with shrillness and uber-separateness, and most of all un-love, and thus they’ll sound like irrelevant gongs. Lump them with the King James Onlyists and other weird, unreasoning, conspiratorial cults. We’ll make our patients afraid of any who have begun to doubt, who actually begin to read the Profane Book, and believe they must worship the Enemy in Spirit and in Truth. We must call all those who have begun to worship him with all their minds — as their blasphemous creed commands they do — Pharisees and Legalists. That label, like no other pejorative, must strike terror in their hearts. And fear is our greatest strategic tool.

So, to sum up, to take advantage of this magnificent opportunity, and minimize the Threat, and bring our expected return, we will redirect and exhaust. We will exhaust them with calls to greater zeal: 24/7 prayers, fasting, busyness. We are going to burden them even more with new ‘revelations’–like this one: It is they who will bring in the Tribulation by all this fervor, and they themselves who defeat Our Boy with their feverish activity! Isn’t it scandalously delicious ?

So in their zeal without true knowledge we will ensure that they are so tired and so distracted, that they do not do the real work the Enemy set before them to do–He made it so ridiculously simple– “TO GO”! And make some more little images of himself, hah! Why doesn’t he surround himself with mirrors, for Our Father Below’s sake? Why does he love these little worms so? Oh well, the great mystery of the ages. Our delightful occupation is to make his family business endlessly complicated. Scrumptious!!

We will devour them with a continuous feeling of inadequacy, of never really reaching the height of spiritual dedication. Yes, exhaust them! Mix lies with truth* to confuse them entirely, and never give them time to think about their doubts; with all their growth in self-denial, we will only exhaust them more! They must feel their sacrifices are never enough, their fasting’s never enough to free them, trapped as they are in self loathing (although really, it is self-admiration, we must make it seem like a more orthodox self immolation). Yes, we will exhaust them entirely, and many will be driven insane, until hapless and hopeless, they are plunged into the great darkness of Our Father Below. Ah! It is such a beautifully cruel plan. I congratulate all who helped to contribute, and may we all dine upon all we desire at the soonest.

Your Fellow Ravenous Spirit,
SHREWSHAPE

* “The devil mixes his lies with the truth, for he must use a truth to carry his lies. The believer must therefore discriminate, and judge all things. He must be able to see so much to be impure, and so much that he can accept. Satan is a “mixer”. If in anything he finds 99% pure, he tries to insert 1% of his poisonous stream, and this grows, if undetected, until the proportions are reversed. Where there is mixture acknowledged to be in meetings where supernatural manifestations take place, if believers are unable to discriminate, they should keep away from these “mixtures” until they are able to discern.” from ’War on the Saints’ by Jessie Penn-Lewis

I hesitate to bring this to your attention. It concerns your Patient, the Certifiably. Again! Also your Newlyweds. I hesitate, as you have a deservedly brilliant reputation; you have deftly handled the patients in your vast Reach, and have used the Certifiably very carefully in the past. You redacted his history at KFC and expertly spinned the more bizarre behaviors that made it into that Report That Must Not Be Named . How regrettable! the author was allowed to go on record recanting that he had ever recanted.* And then his untimely departure to that Permanent Place of Punishment, that is, the Enemy’s Presence! And so that dreadful document haunts the Internet still. How I hate that terrible technology! The ease of Pornographic and Gaming delivery to the patients is not enough to redeem it in my eyes.

Yes, most worthy Dracovox, you are the Master of Spin, as you demonstrated in your superb handling of the downfall of “The Terror of The Lord”! It invokes awe. Hardly a ripple among from among them, very hush-hush, (because it is of the most delicate nature!), and so this climate enabled that attempt to restore him at Fakeland. How easily these gutless wonders forgive and forget– witness the Newlyweds! And look how our patients forget every proven false word and forgive every bizarre vision the Certifiably says because it is from the Enemy. You larded ‘the Prophetic Movement’ with enough caveats to get the Certifiably off any hook–so brilliant! No stoning of false prophets is called for, because predictions are conditional (enough people evidently repented, so…) Or the Enemy decided to delay things for some reason, or (best of all) the ‘maturing’ of the gifts is necessary so prophets can’t be held to 100% accuracy. What is Accuracy anyway? What is Truth? So excellently has my dear brother Screwtape moved the goalposts, that not even standards of competence remain for this generation. Scrumptious.

You are a manipulater as skillful as my dear sibling, and I bow before your amazing skill. I understand completely why the Ludicrous Buffoon and his Atrophy Wife were assigned as your patients–clearly there needs to be a master of damage control, well in charge. Yet I am uneasy about the Ludicrous Buffoon’s relaunch. I don’t think awareness is where we want it to be; note that the YouTube videos are still getting plenty of jeers and not enough advocates carrying the David and Bathsheba message–we must disable comments there! Even his own handlers are questioning the wisdom of his return to “ministry”; saying, “too soon, much too soon—wasn’t the sweet couples ‘confession’ taped just two months ago”? And now the Ludicrous Buffoon is onstage at our Point of Sale? No, not appropriate, not even for this group of patients. Can’t we send the Newlyweds on a honeymoon trip to Haiti, where they can set up some orphanages and hospitals? They are in desperate need of some credibility, and such a move would be purgative in the eyes of his target market, who are restive about this.

We’ve played on our patient’s confusion of good works and “fruit of the Spirit” very effectively in positioning others for the mainstream. We had the Mother Teresa Barbie on CBN, doing her Jesus-Is-the- Best-Lover-Ever shtick–and she even falls out of her chair in her ecstasies! (We must reassess the Bridal Paradigm and how far to push it. The patients will soon be having orgies in front of the altars, and the guilt and shame of that might be devastating in it’s impact–we might awaken their reason!)

Mother Teresa Barbie’s public lasciviousness gets a pass from the gullible because of her work with orphans in Mozambique. So it is simple! The Ludicrous Buffoon’s purification ritual doesn’t have to be for too long; we know what a cash cow he is for his handlers, so they won’t have to part with him too long. I recommend Haiti at the soonest.

Remember, we are seeking to launch the Atrophy as a serious Woman Of God, even a teacher! This campaign been seriously compromised by two unfortunate episodes. Certifiably’s “casting curses off” at our Point of Sale was not such a good move. Then so soon after that, the Oral Roberts Impartation. Discourage wild headshaking like “Snake Lady” for this patient as yet—since Exstasis is only at the pull promotion stage here. There is not enough demand for it. No-one, not even those we’ve hammered with our “offend the mind” message, wants to look that overtly possessed. Yet. Please rein in your pupils here. I like to have fun with the patients as well as the next tempter, but our overall campaign to make these movements mainstream will be compromised with these over-the-top behaviors.

We have strained our patients credulity with these untimely events. These will soon be YouTube staples: Imagine the titles: Prophecy: Shoes and Shunnamites? and then there is: Some Necromancy With Oral Roberts; or “A Dead Elephant in the Middle of the Bentley Living Room” or… Oh dear. I fear we may be losing control of our message, and may be risking this entire campaign.

But we’re good here pushing the same-old same-old, “hungry” call-to-action motivator–and I am hungry just thinking of the Buffoon, now aping the old-time preacher man–that southern twang and hyper-accented syllable at the end of his sentences. So old-timey and comforting to his target market. Hungry!

Yes, so hungry for YOU, you Ludicrous Buffoon, and all such pathetic idolators. Hungry for you to join us in the wonderful buffet, given in your honor by Our Father Below. Luscious.

Yes, hungry, but we must be leery of overconfidence.

Our strategy has been greatly effective, yet frankly I worry that we are growing careless, and too sure of ourselves. We can still lose this demographic of patients. Let’s call a meeting of principals from the various channels to work out the overall campaign–I think we need some serious SWOT analysis. We can brainstorm over breakfast at the the House of Correction for Incompetent Tempters. Sound good to you?

I am ravenously hungry just thinking about it.

Your Fellow Principal Spirit,
SHREWSHAPE

* For “The Vindication of Ernie Gruen”, an interview obtained by the Greycoats before the death of Mr. Gruen, I am so grateful. The False Prophetic have been experts at editing their history. This report cannot be refuted.

“The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.”—Luther

MY DEAR WORMSPONGE,

You must listen to the counsel of your mentor here: our patient must never know we are laughing at her. That was much too bold a move, my dear niece–your hilarious laughter that even Beni Johnson heard, after she blew her shofar, rang her bell, and screamed the proof of her credulousness. I would have laughed too, as she was pulling out of the rest stop in her RV; but, my worthy apprentice, as dreary as this sounds, self-control is of the utmost importance at this critical point. We almost have them completely set apart for our Father Below. Others of her sort, albeit, the ones who really check out and believe the Enemy’s fiendish words, are shocked by this whole episode.

So there is danger here–way too much blogging on and on about it, and laughing! Though you know how our group of patients likes to “offend the mind” and all, yet they hate to be laughed at! The shame of appearing ridiculous might awake our patient’s reason, and we can’t have that at all! Until our control of the Internet is sealed in her territory–though I have it on good authority that one of our “Czars” will move on this any day–there is simply Too Much Information out there, and our patient may notice the laughter, and actually begin to think! so you must be more circumspect.

Or her husband may get wind of it, and he might begin to see how silly your delicious scheme makes them out to be, and put a stop to it. You know how careful he is of his image, to always look like a reasonable and careful teacher of those Vile Words… though he too is completely taken in by our Favorite Perverted False Prophet!!! The Certifiably Insane–because, that is the definition of insanity isn’t it, that you keep ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results’. Different, like an actual true word from that one we have so messed up! LOL!

Too, too ironic for words! That genius Dracovox has got all of the leaders of the Sewer Movement to believe those ridiculous words the Certifiably says, but still, the shoe-Shunnamite thing the “prophet’s” wife just spoke may just be going a little too far! We are all getting much too overconfident of this group! …I must dash a note off to Dracovox about his pupil … Our patient’s husband must seem mainstream! That is our marketing plan, we are positioning him to influence all the Points of Sale, not just the ones we control. He must not have his suspicions roused, nor any one of his acolytes, nor the larger pool of patients. Be careful not to reveal our hand in this, my dear.

Hah! Little hope for them of that, since my dear brother Screwtape so efficiently removed all the signposts a generation ago. Or, as one of our patient’s acolytes simpered recently at one of our Points of Sale, “I’m just not a Bible person…”, which in her mind means, “I’m not one of those awful Pharisees! Those legalists! I just think it’s important to love our fallen brothers and sisters, and not be so judgmental! After all, David sinned, and blah, blah blah!” Ah, my brother Screwtape is a brilliant manipulator! We must emulate him at every point.

We’ve got good traction on that Groupthink. We’ve made them so afraid of “touching the Lord’s anointed” (my own little genius twist on that phrase!) So our patients never check what is said by our Mouthpieces against the filthy lies in that Diabolical Book they claim is their inspiration for all the wacky words we put in their minds! Wacky words? …or should I say “Wakey, Wakey words*?”

It is choice, my dear niece, simply choice, what you suggested to the acolyte’s mind, and she thinks it is the Enemy who put those words there!…no wonder you gave way to the impulse to laugh (you have my greatest sympathy) but really my dear, I must caution you to control yourself! Our patient may catch on!

Doubtful as it is at this point, since her mind seems to be completely given over to a love of our lies. And Most Importantly! How she loves her feelings, those wonderful manifestations we provide her that she believes are a gift from the Enemy. Brilliant strategy concocted by Our Father Below! None of our wonderfully deluded patients must ever, ever see those kundalini Yoga worshipers’ YouTube videos, or the urgent warning posted with them, and until we get them removed, see that your patient never so much clicks anywhere near where they may be posted. If she sees how her behavior in her “worship” of the Enemy exactly matches the “unsaved” she will begin to doubt her feelings, and this she must never, never be allowed to do. We have already put the spin on kundalini, that it is a redemptive link to the culture, and those practicing this kind of yoga are only longing for the real form of worship it imitates. Or something like that. But to see it is another thing.

Oh, and they think they are bringing “revival” wherever they shout those words! Too rich. Death of the real thing in their hearts, rather! “Wakey, wakey”–not a chance, not while they are “whacked”– just the way we like them to stay. Hah! In that state, they will always be ignorant of our devices! Still, we must be careful, it isn’t over till it is over. Till they never wake again, except to be safely awake in Our Father’s House, forever! LOL!!! So, Wormsponge, though I hate that virtue of prudence, we must exercise it here. No more “Angelic” laughter discernible to the patients!

your affectionate Auntie
SHREWSHAPE

*HT to http://mkayla.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/wakey-wakey-whacked-words/ for this “choice” of words. It was M’Kayla’s hilariously sad post which inspired this satire. And she does a great job of eviscerating the poor judgement of Beni Johnson, wife of Bill Johnson there. And to to Chrystal, of “Slaughtering the Sheep”, and PJ Miller of ” Sola Dei Gloria”, who also provided me with links.

Thank you Father, for all that these hardworking bloggers do to expose the apostasy and warn God’s people of the dangers of the False Prophetic Movement!

I’m writing because a lot of us kids are not happy about what you and your friends are doing. I heard you want us to be one big happy family. I want that too, especially if you all play NICE (like no stuff I see on GOD-TV: no electrocutions of people!) so first I’ve gotta know some things. Our Daddy In Heaven says there are bad people out there who just LOOK like his kids, but aren’t, and that they actually want to HURT us so he says we have to be careful about playing with strangers. I’m not saying you are a stranger Bill, but you sure do some strange things!

Like you and your friends do things that our Daddy doesn’t let US do, such as tell people to give them their money so then they’ll get rich, and also BULLYING others!!! Like your BFF, that guy with the tats! (Remember him, that one you tried to explain about, and you said, “Have you seen him with his wife? Have you seen him with his kids? I have.” ) He did VERY bad things like head-butting a man with a very sick tummy right where it hurt SO BAD and lying that he was healed. He died!) and I know our Daddy would want us to stop people from doing these very bad things. So this is very confusing to me.

And Daddy always likes us to be very well-behaved in public, so we don’t give the wrong impression to other kids, ’cause then they won’t want to be adopted into our family, so this is real sad ’cause Daddy loves those stray kids. I’m sorry to say this to you Bill, but I’ve seen you on TV with some very WEIRD people, like that snakelady who shook her head and hissed some strange words, (and I sure wouldn’t want to be in HER family!) You should tell her to mind her manners better! And everybody acting drunk! Everybody knows Daddy doesn’t like people being drunk. Or even worse, some of your friends pretend to smoke baby Jesus and toke the Ghost, and call that the HOLY SPIRIT!!! That is naughty!

And you and your friends always preach about stupid stuff too, like girly looking angels with feathers that fall, and drop gold dust, (and then Emma became a him, that is so weird!!!) and who wants to hear about angels anyway? I don’t need my ears tickled. I don’t need Glory Clouds. I need to hear about JESUS!!! And then there’s porta potties taking people to Heaven (what’s up with that!!!) Bill, in all that stupid stuff, I never hear much about what Daddy’s best son did on the cross to bring us home to him! Yes, Jesus is all I want to talk or sing about.Your songs are sooo boring too, singing over and over again, until you’ve gotten yourselves practically hypnotized; and you sing scary stuff, like “fire fall down on us we pray.” Wouldn’t fire burn you?? It is all VERY STRANGE, this fire!

Daddy helps us to be orderly in public, so I don’t think his training is bad at all, (if that is what you meant, that ’cause we don’t like this kind of weird stuff, that our “training is defective”). He asks us to read his letters a lot so we remember what pleases him. We love him so much we read his letters over and over again, because he uses such wise words. I reeallllly think you should read his letters more Bill, your talking might be better! And you won’t teach wrong stuff such as “the anointing Jesus received at his baptism was the equipment necessary to make it possible for Jesus to live beyond human limitations.” Then you said Jesus was born again. Someone smart told me this is the kenotic heresy. So read Daddy’s letters more and all your talking might not have so many mistakes in it.

Daddy always says when you love the true things it is easy to understand his words. So just use short sentences and no hard words, like how you said we have to give up “denominationalism.” I think denominations are a good thing Bill, like someone smart once said, “Denominations mean that somebody somewhere still believes something.”

So I have this question for you, Bill, and I sure hope it doesn’t hurt your feelings like last time someone asked you a question like this and it seemed like you were ready to cry! Well, you swallowed hard a lot. Anyway, Bill, here it is: Are you sure it is “in GOD’S name” you and your friends do what you do?

Your friend, I hope,

Karen Butler

Author update, 2009 : Mr. Johnson came to town just recently, perhaps to decree some apostley things for us all, as is his wont. Perhaps he has decreed we are a cancer-free zone now, like his hometown of Redding? So, I updated this piece I wrote when we left a church very dear to us because they aligned with Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church, an organization our children named “The Kick Your Face Crew.” That moniker is in response to Johnson’s protege, Todd Bentley, whose notorious initiation into the deeper things of God was when he kicked a worshiping old woman in the face with his biker boot in obedience to the prompting of the (Holy?) Spirit.

The video I used to link to this letter, and set it in its context, has been pulled from YouTube. Sad. It was so easy to spot that judgmental spirit sitting heavy on the brow of the one who tells us we may not judge. But scroll down the page of the last link in the letter above. There is the text, but without those tears he choked back, when he delivered it at his pulpit in Bethel, his usual ad hominem attack of critics (…” Have you seen Todd with his wife and kids?”…But sadly, Bill, we have! We have seen Todd abandon them for an adulterous relationship! And a re-marriage that is completely unscriptural). Johnson defends the charlatan there with no biblical support, propping up Bentley’s seeming integrity. Johnson’s lack of discernment reached its peak in the in the falseness so evident when stood at the podium at Todd’s commissioning ceremony, with its parade of lying prophecies and weird manifestations. Within weeks Bentleys’ debauched nature was clearly evident to all with eyes that see.

There can be no more defense of Todd Bentley. Reputable journalists such as World Magazine and the producers of Nightline have agreed with the bloggers who first sounded the alarm about Lakeland’s blatant charlatanism. The record of supposed healings and dead-raisings is non-existent. Ample documentation is online regarding the gnostic and new age practices of Johnson and his friends among the International Coalition of Apostles.

My friend M’Kayla writes about some of these issues on her excellent blog. She has had experience as a leader in the Healing Rooms, and was trained in the Sozo style of prayer Johnson popularized. Now she is effectively demonstrating the unbiblical roots of this movement, and ministering to the brokenness of those coming out of the Extreme Prophetic.

And Craig at CrossWise is an encyclopedia for all things Bill Johnson, and the Latter Rain Movement. Because many of us believe Bill is the most dangerous of them all, because he is the most wiley and the most winsome.

The sickest thing in the theology of this man is that he says he does not “allow for sickness.” How is that working for you and your wife, Bill? I know it doesn’t work for me nor myown. I do not understand the callous theology of those who would say to a paraplegic like my gentle and humble brother-in-law, that the reason he was not healed when Johnson prayed for him was that my brother did not have enough faith. Words fail. And thanks be to God, my brother-in-law’s faith has not.

And let this be said of all who have passed through their strange fire, that it has not burned them.

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